


Intersections

by HopefulNebula



Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Canon Relationship, F/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-23
Updated: 2011-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-27 20:30:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/299751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopefulNebula/pseuds/HopefulNebula
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>The first time she took him as her lover, they didn't know each other's names.</em> Scenes from Ruta Skadi's relationship with Lord Asriel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intersections

**Author's Note:**

  * For [finch (afinch)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/afinch/gifts).



The first time Ruta Skadi laid eyes on the man, her dæmon saved his life.

She would admit no wrongdoing later, and Asriel would expect no such admission. He had, after all, been trespassing in the lands of Ruta's clan. And he had in his shelter the kind of instruments that the Magisterium had been trying for years to set up throughout the North. She was well within her rights to put an arrow through his throat and fly away without a further thought.

And she had been about to do just that, until Sergi made the "chack chack chack" sound a real bluethroat would make, and the sound stayed her hand and attracted the man's attention.

It was only then that she saw his face clearly for the first time. In the instant it took him to point his rifle up at her, she knew why Sergi had stopped her, though she could not have explained it in words.

"What is your business here?" she shouted down at him from her branch of cloud-pine. She dared not move yet; she couldn't outfly his bullets. Nor would she be the first to lower her weapon; she would lose all advantage.

The stranger stared up at her, his eyes blue as glaciers and fierce as the snow leopard standing beside him. He said nothing, but Ruta knew he had heard her.

"I'm sending my dæmon down as a sign of good faith," shouted Ruta. "You can talk to him and know that I do not intend you any harm unless you act first." Because that was true, now. A few moments ago she would have killed him without remorse, but there was something in that face, in those hands, in the way his dæmon held herself, that fascinated her. And she sensed somehow that this man was important.

The man nodded slowly, and Sergi lifted off from the part of her crown that he would perch on when she was stationary in the air. He made his way down to the man and landed on a patch of snow in front of the snow leopard. The leopard sniffed the bluethroat, and they shared a moment of silent communication. The man lowered his rifle, keeping it close at hand, and Ruta knew it was safe to land.

"Who are you, and what are you doing with this equipment on our land? As queen of my clan, I would know if you had asked permission."

The man leveled his gaze at Ruta, and she felt a chill of excitement spread across her neck and shoulders. "I'm here on a peaceful expedition. I'm not working for the Magisterium, nor anyone else who would wish you harm, I assure you. Actually, they'd have me arrested or killed if they had any idea what I'm doing."

"If there is any chance that the Magisterium is following you, you cannot stay here. You might be welcome on our lands; I don't know that yet. They certainly are not. So I ask you again: what exactly is this 'peaceful expedition'?"

The man regarded the witch for several moments, as if deciding how much of the truth to tell. "They won't be following me," he replied. "Officially, I'm studying the earth's anbaric field and its effects on the atmosphere. They have no reason to disbelieve me. Not yet, anyway. I didn't realize I'd strayed this far, though. I assure you, I had no intention of trespassing. What I'm really doing is studying Dust. I want to counter the Magisterium's work on the subject, and I believe my research will benefit both of us."

The snow leopard dæmon touched her nose to Sergi once again, and the knowledge that the man was honest in his words, though still hiding much of the truth, took hold in Ruta. But that didn't matter, not when she could plainly tell he'd felt the same spark the second time their dæmons touched.

The first time she took him as her lover, they didn't know each other's names.

* * *

Asriel visited the North regularly, as it happened, though he rarely visited the same region twice, and had different excuses each time. Always, though, he would let Ruta know where he would be and when. And always she would find whatever shelter he had built, bought, borrowed, or bartered empty, and wait for him there as he took his measurements and recordings. He'd return to his shelter, often at sunrise, and find her there.

Twice she flew to Oxford and found him there, and they met in much the same manner.

She'd never waited like that for any other man, nor would she ever again.

* * *

When they spoke, it was never about themselves. They preferred to know each other through touch, and through their dæmons' contact. Instead, they discussed politics, natural phenomena, and their travels. She told him of the time she had spent in Africa and the Orient; he talked to her about the cities of London and Oxford, Prague and Heidelberg. He passed on what he knew of the Magisterium's plans, especially regarding the North; she shared with him a little of the lore of the Latvian witches.

The one time they deviated from this pattern was the last time Ruta met Asriel in their own world.

"The Consistorial Court is losing power every day," he told her then. "More and more of it. And the group that's replacing it is led by a woman who is quite possibly the most dangerous person on the planet right now."

If Ruta had been a different person, perhaps a human woman or a young, impressionable witch, she would have flattered Asriel. She would have told him that nobody could be more dangerous than he. But she was a witch queen. She had no use for flattery and lies. And anybody who Lord Asriel Belacqua described as dangerous was surely a threat to watch intently.

"What do you know of her?" she asked.

"I know her name," he said. "And I could tell you where she's from, and who her parents are, and what form her dæmon takes, and who she used to be married to. But I'm not certain how much of anything else about her is even true."

Perhaps it was something in the way he spoke, or perhaps it was the fact that Sergi was still roosting on Stelmaria's back, but the truth came upon her in an instant.

"This is the woman who mothered your child," she said.

"Yes," replied Asriel. "How do you know about her?"

"Our consul in Riga follows your doings and reports the notable ones to me."

"I see. You might as well hear my part of it, then." And he told her the full story, from meeting the woman at the Royal Arctic Institute to his duel and subsequent trial.

"Marisa Coulter will do anything if she thinks it will make her more powerful," he finished. "She puts on a pious countenance when it suits her, but ultimately I don't think she sees the Magisterium as anything but a means to an end. I can't tell, because when she lies, she does it so completely that even if you know what she's saying is untrue, you can't help but want to believe her. The only things I know are definitely true about her are matters of public record."

"Do you know where I can find her?" Ruta Skadi asked, her jaw tense. Sergi's grip on Stelmaria's coat tightened, almost imperceptibly. She made the calculations in her head. In favorable winds, she could make it to Brytain and back without being missed by her clan. If Asriel couldn't risk doing anything about Coulter, she could.

"Ruta. If I thought killing her would accomplish anything, I'd have done it myself. Killing her would leave a void that would harm the Magisterium, that much is certain, but the void it would create would be temporary. Better the enemy you know than the one you don't. Besides, if anybody got word that you had so much as looked at her, your entire clan would be fighting off invaders for the next fifty years."

And with that, Ruta knew that the next time he sent notice of where he would be, she would not follow him. If half of what Asriel had said about the Coulter woman was true, then Coulter would be following his voyages as closely as she did herself.

The needs of her clan outweighed her own desires. They always would. She was a queen. And she had been weak to find herself becoming so attached to a man.

The next time Asriel sent her notice of where in the North he would be, she stayed in the company of her sisters.

* * *

When Asriel saw her in his sleeping chambers, he had his hand on the button that would summon his guards. It was Stelmaria's large, soft head bumping against him that stopped him from actually pressing it.

Asriel still exuded alertness and determination, but Ruta watched the suspicion drain out of his face. The man suddenly looked exhausted.

"I'd wondered when I would see you again," he said.

And they said no more for a long time.


End file.
